The speaker, a student, was talking about efforts to unite St. Ambrose University, where this weeknight Mass was being held, with fellow Catholic university Mount Mercy.
Small religious schools in rural states are shutting down at an accelerating rate, a fate these two are attempting to avoid.
FULL story is HERE.
Spring Hill College in Mobile is one of the Religious Rural colleges trying to stay open.
Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, even called it “a license to kill Black people” because he said Black people are more likely to be shot or hurt by a police officer who makes a bad decision out of fear or racism.
“We don’t get the benefit of the doubt,” Smitherman said. “I don’t care what it is. Black folks don’t get the benefit of the doubt.”
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said it was already rare for police to be charged with crimes when they injure or kill someone through the use of force on their jobs.
“This is not about backing the blue because we all recognize the importance of law enforcement,” England said.
“But as a legislator, as government officials, we also have to represent the average citizen in that same situation.
“So we back the blue. But we also protect the individual rights of people to be from unconstitutional use of force.”
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Investigators, who did not identify the teenager, now 18, said they believed she had been sexually abused by her stepfather.
The family appears to have lived at their house on Ridge Avenue since 2017, according to property records. Since then, the only police calls to the home have been for barking dogs in the yard. But whenever the police arrived, Chief Harkins said, the couple quickly put the dogs inside.
No responding officers ever entered the house.
"... they pulled her out of elementary school with the excuse that she would be home-schooled.
FULL STORY HERE.
The last words in a column by Maureen Dowd in today's NY Times:
...Bidenworld’s gauzy alternate universe.
OUCH.
Read the entire column HERE.
On Friday, Moody’s lowered the rating from a gold-standard Aaa to Aa1. “Successive US administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs,” it said as it changed its outlook on the US to “stable” from “negative”.
The Headline (via AL.COM):
There are reports that a huge data center---one of the largest in the U.S.---may be built on 700 acres in little Bessemer, a small city near Birmingham:
"...a 700-acre, wooded plot of land that soon may be transformed, through years of construction, into a 4.5-million-square-foot data processing center located just within the city limits of Bessemer, Alabama, a city of about 25,000 southwest of Birmingham.
If built to planned capacity, the data center would be one of the largest in the United States and could become one of the largest single consumers of electricity in the state."
Source: HERE.
Nearly 200 years ago, Cherokee gathered inside a cave in Alabama and, using their newly minted alphabet, wrote ceremonial messages onto the walls and ceiling, a new study finds. The writings included accounts of Cherokee ancestors and stickball, the predecessor of lacrosse.
Some of the religious messages were written backward, possibly so that spirits in this cave — which the Cherokee might have viewed as a portal to the spirit world — could read them, the researchers said.
Modern researchers have known about these writings since explorers found the markings in Manitou Cave in 2006, but now a group of archaeologists, including those from the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, have worked together to translate the messages. [10 Things We Learned About the First Americans in 2018]
While President Trump welcomed the U.S.-born cardinal as the new pope, top Trump allies criticized Leo XIV for his similarities to Pope Francis.
(Which increases my like for the new Pope!)
from an AL.COM story:
Although the Constitution is clear that Trump cannot be elected president again, he has floated the idea of running.
Americans want him to stop thinking about it, according to the poll.
About three-fourths of respondents said they don’t want Trump seeking a third term.
A majority of Republicans -- 54% -- also said Trump should not run again."
A competition is underway to select a new Montgomery City Flag, but be ready to do some serious writing to win
The rules include this:
Participants will write a 250 page essay explaining their vision for a new flag to the best of their ability and submit a drawing to the city clerk.
250 pages? Let me add a new rule: EVERY current city council member and the mayor must do the same, or lose their position.
BTW there are 1,320 words in the declaration of independence.
(The organizers say they are requiring an essay of no more than 250 WORDS.)
All nine are white.
Montgomery is a majority black city.
Seems to me you have to work hard to come up with that racial mix (or lack thereof!)
The company obviously approved the commercial, without anyone thinking "Hey...don't we have ANY black employees? Don't we have some black customers?
Just asking.....
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office did not immediately issue a comment on the decision. The state is expected to appeal.
SOURCE: HERE
I arrived in Quang Tri, Vietnam, new, slightly muddy boots and all.
I was 19.
One of the military/U.S. Army jobs I had was anchoring a nightly TV Newscast on The Armed Forces Vietnam-TV Network of stations. I originated those newscasts in a small basic studio that was connected to the transmission "truck" that I'm standing in front of in this photo.
This photo shows most of the AFVN studio buildings. The sandbags were in place to prevent winds from blowing the roofs off. Way in the background, on the right, you can see one of the observation towers that circled the base camp.
“Subsequently, the foot pursuit led into a deadly force encounter between Hicks and the ALEA Trooper,” Burkett said.
“Over the course of the incident, Hicks was injured by gunfire and the trooper immediately rendered first aid.”
However, Burkett said, Hicks died on the scene.
No other details were released.
FULL STORY is HERE.
 | |||||||
| A statue of Sims in front of The Alabama Capitol. | |
J. Marion Sims continues to loom large in the medical field, celebrated as a medical trailblazer. Statues were erected to him in, among other places, New York City's Central Park, the South Carolina statehouse, outside his old medical school, Jefferson University, in Philadelphia and outside the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery (put there by The Medical Association of Alabama.)
He relocated to Montgomery, Alabama, seeking a fresh start, after the death of his first two patients.
After several years of activism, the Philadelphia statue was moved into storage and the statue in Central Park was removed on April 17, 2018. Its plaque was to be replaced by one that educates the public on the origins of the monument and the controversial, non-consensual medical experiments Sims used on women of color. The names (and histories) of the three known women “whose bodies were used in the name of medical and scientific advancement” by Sims, Lucy, Anarcha and Betsey, were to be recognized on the new plaque.
It's a recognition some see as overdue. In a 1941 paper titled “The Negro’s Contribution to Surgery,” published in the _Journal of the National Medical Associatio_n, Dr. John A. Kenney of the Tuskegee Institute, considered the dean of Black dermatology, wrote, “I suggest that a monument be raised and dedicated to the nameless Negroes who have contributed so much to surgery by the ‘guinea pig’ route.”
(SOURCE HERE.)
"For motorcycle lovers in Sweden, Harley-Davidson is the hottest brand on the road. Jack Daniel’s whiskey beckons from the bar at British pubs. In France, Levi’s jeans are all about chic.
But in the tumult of President Trump’s trade war with Europe, many European consumers are starting to avoid U.S. products and services in what appears to be a decisive and potentially long-term shift away from buying American, according to a new assessment by the European Central Bank."
What is new, the central bank said, is a “preference” among European
consumers “to move away from U.S. products and brands altogether,” no
matter what the cost. That was the case even for households that could
bear the brunt of higher prices.
“Even though they could afford more expensive U.S. products and
services, they consciously choose alternatives,” the bank said. “This
suggests that consumers’ reactions may not just be a temporary response
to tariff increases, but instead signal a possible long-term structural
shift in consumer preferences away from U.S. products and brands.”
Full N.Y. Times story is HERE.
“A disgraced ultra-conservative banjo player ousted from his Grammy-winning band; a far-right conspiracy theorist with alleged ties to Russia; a TikTokcreator known as ‘Maga Malfoy’ for his resemblance to the Harry Potter character; and an extremist social media ‘influencer’ once banned from Twitter for posting a video depicting sexual abuse of a child. These are just some of the ‘new media’ personalities courted by the White House to take part in a series of alternative briefings championed by Donald Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.”
The World’s Top 20 Happiest Cities
1.Copenhagen, Denmark
2. Zurich, Switzerland,
3. Singapore
4. Aarhus, Denmark
5. Antwerp, Belgium
6. Seoul, South Korea
7. Stockholm, Sweden
8. Taipei, Taiwan
9. Munich, Germany
10. Rotterdam, Netherlands
11. Vancouver, Canada
12. Vienna, Austrai
13. Paris, France
14. Helsinki, Finland
15. Aalborg, Denmark
16. Berlin, Germany
17. New York, United States
18. Dresden, Germany
19. Brussels, Belgium
20. Geneva, Switzerland
Ukraine is getting more help in its war with Russia.
A Patriot air-defense system that was based in Israel will be sent to Ukraine after it is refurbished, four current and former U.S. officials said in recent days, and Western allies are discussing the logistics of Germany or Greece giving another one.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, declined to describe President Trump’s view of the decision to transfer more Patriot systems to Ukraine.
The White House’s National Security Council does not provide details on the strength and placement of defense systems, said James Hewitt, a spokesman for the council. “President Trump has been clear: he wants the war in Ukraine to end and the killing to stop,” he said.
A former White House official said that the Biden administration had secured the agreement with Israel in September, before the election won by Mr. Trump. The Defense Department said in a statement that “it continues to provide equipment to Ukraine from previously authorized” packages, referring to weaponry pulled from existing inventories and new purchases.
The delivery, which has not been previously reported, comes as Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine, including an April 24 missile strike on Kyiv that was the deadliest since last summer.
A year ago, allies struggled to answer a demand by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for seven Patriot systems. Although Ukraine now has eight, only six are functioning. The other two are being refurbished, one of the U.S. officials said. With the one from Israel, and one from Germany or Greece, Ukraine would have 10 Patriot systems in total, largely to protect the capital, Kyiv.
As Russia has intensified recent attacks, Mr. Trump’s recent public remarks on the war have softened in favor of Ukraine.
Mr. Trump had a cordial meeting with Mr. Zelensky at Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome last weekend, after a disastrous one in February in the Oval Office. He has dialed down his negative rhetoric about Mr. Zelensky and questioned whether Russia is serious about peace talks. A delayed minerals deal with Ukraine was signed on Wednesday, paving the way for more U.S. military aid.
On Saturday, Mr. Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv that the minerals deal could mean the United States would send more air-defense systems.
"Better safe than sorry. An urgent recall was issued for a specific model after the South Korean multinational automotive manufacturing company, Hyundai, acknowledged its ‘brake failure’ possibility. The urgent recall will also affect American motorists, as Hyundai Motor America recalled approximately 1,589 cars. Affected car owners are advised to take precautions and follow the instructions sent by Hyundai."
SOURCE: HERE
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